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Google has made changes to the developer edition of Chrome running on Windows, shuffling around categories on its Chrome Web Store. Now, the "Apps" category only means the new class of packaged apps that are installed in Chrome. Packaged apps are written in HTML5, JavaScript and CSS and designed to behave much more like native apps, most notably by having the ability to run without an internet connection.

Besides offline functionality, the apps can also interact with network and hardware devices like USB drives and Bluetooth speakers and, since they are loaded in an app container, are presented to the user without Chrome browser features such as the address bar.

The new category means users can now search for packaged apps, which previously could be uploaded to the Chrome Web Store but were only discoverable if a user had a direct link to the app.

Liam Tung is an Australian business technology journalist living a few too many Swedish miles north of Stockholm for his liking. He gained a bachelors degree in economics and arts (cultural studies) at Sydney's Macquarie University, but hacked (without Norse or malicious code for that matter) his way into a career as an enterprise tech, s...
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